I'm here and getting geared up to start painting tomorrow when I get the kids off to school! (I left ya a message on Conversations). As you know, the site had been giving me problems, but I think I'm good again so you'll be hearing more from me. Hope to post some pics tomorrow! I was wondering where everyone else went too. Bebe....hope your eyes are ok and you can paint us up something beautiful soon. And hope everyone else gets some time to paint as well. We have quite a few holidays coming up so I am looking forward to seeing lots of projects for those! ~Anj

Hi yall,
I had family for three weeks, then surgery on my eyelids and then my monitor went out. I couldn't go to the store with puffy eyes so I had to wait to get another monitor - but why get just the monitor, I bought a whole new computer. Will give the older one to my grand daughter.

Started painting Santa ornaments yesterday, just completed 21 of them, nothing special, just Santa faces. I have a class this weekend at our club - will be painting a white egret on canvas and sandpipers on fabric (shirts). Then the following weekend I will be teaching the wild roses I was suppose to teach before the kidney stone episode.

I haven't had a chance to check out all the new things posted but hope to do so soon.

Later,
B

Hi Luvs, I have just been lurking but thought I would use the opportunity of this thread to say hello, and to try out the photo tutorial at the top of the list. :)

My summer has been one I would rather not repeat... our home was completely flooded in June and my husband and I have been living in our camper since June 14. Our daughter, who spent most of the summer living with her older sister not too far away, has re-joined us now that school has started, so it's just a little cramped. We are in the last two weeks of waiting to close on a new house, at which I hope to finally have a permanent painting table set up in the basement workshop! We shall see, we sure can't waste too much more time waiting around! :)

Here's a photo of something I painted back in 2006 - a small 'brag book' photo album. I did one of these for each of the girls at my daughter's birthday party that year, as well as one for each of my SIL's. They were quick and easy to paint! (Click the image for a larger view and link to my full album of painting.)

Best,
Janet

{{!gwi}}

Hi Janet, I'm so glad you are joining in here. What a nice way to introduce yourself with all those lovely pictures of projects.

I'm so sorry you went through those awful floods in Iowa this year. What a horrible thing to lose your home. Are you building on the same land or relocating? Even though it's crowded, bet you were glad to have your camper to live in temporairly--so expensive otherwise, huh?

I'm originally from the St. Joseph, Missouri area, so I've seen poor Elwood, Ks. get flooded out quite allot. Always felt so bad for the people whose homes got flooded and wondered why many of them came back. My Dad explained that many of them owned their land which no one else would buy, so they had no choice.

I know you will have lots to do getting settled in your new home. So glad you will have a painting area, that means soon you will have even more pics of projects to share with us.

You paint your roses really nicely. If you've been reading here any, you will know that I LOVE roses. I learned to do the One Stroke roses a few years ago. I tend to paint mostly pink ones because those are my favorite. When you paint your blue roses, do you use blue/white or blue/lighter blue. I did some red ones on a project once and found those a little difficult to get the contrast. Red/white made them too pink, so I used red/black and then did a bit of highlights in the white after they dried.

Your cherries look wonderful too. I've always thought it would be fun to decorate a kitchen in cherry decor. There's just something so cheerful about them--must be the Mary Englebreight influence. ;o)

Now that you've hopped in here, don't be a stranger. There's more pics on the gallery here, and we'd love to have you come chat about anything and everything on the conversations side too.

Luvs

Hi Janet and Welcome! Thanks for the photo album of great projects! They are all so pretty, but my favorite is the Christmas balls.

I am so sorry to hear about your house flooding. I hope you were able to save your most important memories. I know you will be glad to get into your new house. My DH's g-ma had a huge mess in her house after Katrina and had to live in one of the little fema trailers for a year and she was so happy to get out of that.

We hope you will keep coming and sharing your projects as you get back to painting in your home. =) ~Anj

Luvs and Anj, thanks so much for the warm welcome! :)

We are creeping closer to purchasing a new home (across town, higher ground! LOL) but wow, do those wheels turn slowly! Luvs, believe me, the whole question of "why do you stay" has been asked of us many times, sometimes in a very caring way and other times in a very grumpty, how-dare-you kind of way. Most times, people don't even really want to know the answer - they just don't know what else to say, or they want you to know they DON'T feel sorry for you. We believe that we have ALWAYS made the right decision, even after going through two floods. This time, we chose to move - the house was damaged beyond reasonable cost of repair, AND we knew that emotionally we would not be able to go through it if it happened a third time. But we do not regret having lived there as long as we did. And yes, we were VERY glad to have the camper as an option - it has allowed us to still be on the property, keeping an eye on the neighborhood, as many of our neighbors are not in their homes and it is attractive to vandals.

My painting is all based on One Stroke and basic tole painting so far. For my roses, they are definitely One Stroke (though there are a few other artists more "impressionistic" in style that I would like to emulate as well - Priscilla Hauser for one... oh my goodness, I LOVE her florals!) ... on the blue ones, at least for the ornaments in the picture, I used a light blue and white, over an ivory background. The white was not pure white by the time I was done blending, though ;) Your red-and-black solution to the "pink" problem sounds like it was right on the money... I knowI have used red and a very dark red before when trying to paint poinsettias, but probably black would have given the result I was really looking for.

The cherries are on a flatware caddy I painted for my MIL - I thought they looked very good for not being very complicated, they are just a couple of face-to-face "C" strokes, with some floated shading and a little light reflected.

Anj, my heart certainly goes out to your hubby's grandmother, I hope things got back to normal for her - I can't imagine the level of devastation down there... it is so depressing to live in a ravaged environment like that. I'm crossing my fingers that we will get into the new house VERY soon!!

Thanks again - I will definitely be sharing more stuff as I get going again!!

Best,
Janet

Hi Janet, I'll sure look forward to more of your projects after you get settled in your new home and get to start painting again. Please come chat with us anytime. We like to talk about what we'd like to paint even. I know both Anj and I have a stack of stuff waiting to be worked on.

I can't even imagine how people could NOT care that someone has been in a disaster like a flood, tornado, hurricane, etc. All of those are so sudden, leaving little to no time for preparation or evacuation. I sure pray that those wheels get to turning faster for you and you will be settled in your new place to start the new year.

Luvs

HI Janet....yes you are welcome to just come by and chat with us....we usually have a weekly thread over on the Conversations part of the forum. On the main page at the top there are 3 sections to this forum...Gallery, Conversations and Discussions that you can switch between. I always try to point that out to newbies cause it took me a long time before I figured that little trick out. ha

I can certainly see staying in a place that has sentimental value or some people can't afford to go anywhere else. People should be more sensitive. I'm sure your neighbors are glad to have you there looking after things too. G-ma had to sell her place and is living in a full sized trailer on her son's property so they can help look after her. She's out in the country now and she likes it.

I have tried to do the one-stroke, but I'm not that great at it. I need more practice which I never find time for even though I want to be able to do it so much. My main problem...I think....is not loading enough paint on my brush.

We are glad to have you here. Come and visit with us anytime you can. ~Anj

hi there everyone im new at this site my name is lisa my email address is lexus170@yahoo.com if u would like to chat about our ideas i have done several project over the years i like painting and stenciling recently i painted a flowerpots birdbath i sold a few.i like painting on slate,ceiling fan blades,stools, chairs,etc.i would like to hear some of everyone ideas.